


The Courage of Stars

by kira_katrine



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 14:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20194090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_katrine/pseuds/kira_katrine
Summary: She chose to stay, and her beloved had chosen to go.Written for the 300bpm exchange. Prompt: "Saturn" by Sleeping at Last.





	The Courage of Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguefaerie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguefaerie/gifts).

> This was written for the 300bpm challenge, inspired by the song "Saturn" by Sleeping at Last.

She had chosen to stay.

Diana had remained behind in their little house by the sea, with the pale blue curtains and the wood floors and the telescope on the porch. She had rearranged the seashells displayed on the windowsills time and time again, always changing her mind as to which was the most beautiful, always knowing none would ever come close to matching Aurora’s beauty.

Aurora had loved that house too, had helped pick out the curtains and the pillows on the couch and all the rest of it, had collected half those seashells. The telescope had been hers.

But she had always wanted more. She dreamed of other worlds up among the stars, worlds with orange sand or purple skies, worlds with their own people who might live in tunnels deep under the ground or in floating cities high in the air.

Diana was never like her. She thought of those worlds and imagined poison skies, ravenous beasts, rivers flowing with undrinkable alien liquid. She thought of the long journey it would surely take to reach even one, were it possible, and of never seeing their little house or the sea again. She told Aurora nothing of this--those worlds were unreachable, may not have even been real, and to speak in such a way would not be worth losing the look of wonder on Aurora’s face as she contemplated the impossible.

There were worlds a bit closer to home, of course. Aurora longed to visit them too, to taste their food, hear their songs, see their forests and mountains and beaches. She had seen pictures, and showed them to Diana, describing each one, explaining the things others who had visited had learned. And when the day came when Aurora was given a chance to go, to sail over the sea and see those worlds, her eyes glowed as she told Diana of what was to come.

“Come with me, my love,” Aurora said. “This world, this universe was made for us to see. I want to see it by your side.”

But Diana looked at her beloved and knew, _I would only ever hold you back._

“I cannot,” she said. 

“Diana, I do not wish to leave you behind. I want you to see it all, everything that was in those pictures I showed you and more. Without you, it will not be the same.”

“I could never stop you, darling,” Diana said. “I will think of you every day, and count down the minutes until you return--but I could never think to stop you.”

When Aurora left, Diana still thought of the beasts and the storms and the overwhelming heat of the summers and the frigid cold of the winters. She tried to put them out of her mind--_none of these things that worry you ever come to pass--_as she walked along the beach, gathering more seashells and looking up at the stars, wondering if Aurora was watching them too.

And then came the awful day. Aurora’s ship had gone down in a terrible storm, before it had even arrived at its destination. Few had survived, and Aurora had not been among them.

Diana looked at the stars differently now. Aurora had believed death was not truly an end, that those who are lost find their place among the stars. Had Aurora really found her place at last? _Was your place never truly with me, darling?_ She was torn between wanting to pack away the telescope for good, hardly able to look at it anymore, and wanting to look further up into the heavens than she could with only her eyes, as if she would be able to see her beloved’s smile from a million miles away.

_I would have gone anywhere, Aurora, _she thought.

_Anywhere, darling, if I could have brought you home with me, alive and whole. Shining with the joy I know you would have felt at having seen the worlds beyond the sea at last. Anywhere you would have me, for no beast, no storm, no poison sky compares to life without you._

But the stars gave no reply.


End file.
